Maximilian I

Maximilian I, (born April 17, 1573, Munich, Bavaria [Germany]—died Sept. 27, 1651, Ingolstadt, Bavaria), duke of Bavaria from 1597 and elector from 1623, a champion of the Roman Catholic side during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48).

After a strict Jesuit education and a fact-finding trip to Bohemia and Italy, Maximilian succeeded to the ducal throne on his father’s abdication in 1597. Bavaria, debt-ridden and ill-administered, was soon restored to solvency and sound government by the energetic young duke. He revised the law code, built an effective army, and tightened control over his lands and the church. To counteract the newly created Protestant Union, in 1609 Maximilian formed the Catholic League. In 1619 he sent the Catholic League’s army to fight the rebellious Bohemian subjects of Emperor Ferdinand II, but he exacted a high price: the retention of all lands captured by the league from the rebels and, in case of total victory, the transfer of the electoral rank held by the Bohemians’ leader, Frederick V of the Palatinate.

In 1620 the league’s general, Johann Tserclaes, count von Tilly, first concluded a treaty of neutrality with the forces of the Protestant Union, thus safeguarding his flank, and then went on to conquer Upper Austria and Bohemia. Maximilian was present when his troops destroyed Frederick’s forces at the Battle of White Mountain. The Bavarians overran most of the Palatinate the following year. In 1623 Ferdinand transferred the Palatine electorate to Maximilian, causing widespread outrage; the following year a coalition of Protestant rulers, led by King Christian IV of Denmark, prepared to invade Germany in defense of Frederick’s rights. Ferdinand therefore raised an army of his own under Albrecht von Wallenstein, which, together with Maximilian’s forces, eventually occupied all of northern Germany and most of Denmark.

Soon after Christian IV made peace, Maximilian forced Ferdinand to dismiss Wallenstein and to disband his army (1630), but almost immediately King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden entered the conflict. He routed Tilly at the Battle of Breitenfeld (Sept. 17, 1631), forcing Maximilian to turn to France for assistance and to agree to the recall of Wallenstein. Neither saved him: Bavaria fell to the Swedes in 1632, Tilly died in battle, and Maximilian fled.

The Battle of Nördlingen (Sept. 6, 1634) restored Maximilian’s control over Bavaria, and the following year he married Ferdinand’s daughter, thus cementing his alliance with the Habsburgs. The two allies faced the French (who concentrated their efforts against Bavaria) and the Swedes (who mostly attacked the emperor) until the defeat of Maximilian’s army at the Battle of Allerheim (Aug. 3, 1645) left the duchy once again open to plunder. On March 14, 1647, the elector signed a cease-fire with his enemies, but six months later he rashly broke the agreement. The French therefore attacked again, and on May 17, 1648, at the Battle of Zusmarshausen, they destroyed Maximilian’s last field army. The elector once more fled from his duchy. Only the Peace of Westphalia, later that year, saved him. Maximilian managed to retain his electoral title and also the Upper Palatinate, restoring only the Rhenish lands to Frederick V’s successor.

Maximilian had substantially increased the size of his territories and gained the coveted title of elector; he had also established himself as undisputed leader of the German Catholics. He had achieved this in part through his obsessive style of government. “I see to my affairs myself and check my accounts myself,” he once told a relative.

True reputation and greatness depend not on spending, but on spending well and on saving, so that a little will make a lot, and from a few hundred will come a few thousand and from the thousands will come millions.

“Spending well,” however, included fighting for half of his long reign, at a terrible cost not only to his own subjects but also to all of Germany. Maximilian’s determination to achieve his religious and political goals, whatever the cost, played a crucial role in prolonging the war in Germany for 30 years.